New York Archdiocese to Reorganize, Merge Parishes

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York will merge more than 50 parishes because of lower attendance and rising expenses — the largest reorganization in its 164-year history, according to The New York Times.

The announcement came Thursday in Cardinal Timothy Dolan's column in Catholic New York, saying the reorganization would shrink the archdiocese’s network of 368 parishes by 14 percent.

While Dolan said the merged parishes would be in "purgatory," the decision avoids closings.

"Let me be candid: there will soon be a real sense of grief at some of our parishes as we get set to announce publicly what we’ve been preparing for the last five years, namely, the merging of some of our beloved parishes," he wrote. "In a few places, there might even be a feeling that something has died."

But he said there are too many parishes for modern needs, including in Manhattan, were some churches are just a block apart.

“[W]e simply have too many parishes, in areas that used to have huge Catholic numbers, where most of the people have since moved away," he wrote. "We can no longer staff them."

The archdiocese – which includes Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island in the city, and suburban counties including Westchester – went through a consolidation in 2007, when 10 parishes were closed and others were moved or ordered to combine with another parish, Capital New York reports.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York will merge more than 50 parishes because of lower attendance and rising expenses - the largest reorganization in its 164-year history, according to The New York Times.